In the Media

The biggest challenge of the legislative session – closing a $5 billion budget gap – was on its way to a solution Tuesday. The Democrat-controlled House voted along party lines to pass a $32.2 billion spending compromise that it negotiated with the Senate on Monday.

The full Senate expects to vote on it today, sending it to Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, as lawmakers race to finish their 30-day special session on its final day.

Overall, lawmakers’ optimism about getting out of Olympia was rising after details of the operating budget deal were announced mid-morning. One of the biggest remaining stumbling blocks – whether to lower the state debt limit in the constitution – was removed Tuesday with an agreement to create a “blue ribbon” task force.

The Legislature’s negotiators reached a deal Tuesday that will create a lower debt limit but won’t tie lawmakers’ hands by enshrining it into the state constitution – something a bipartisan crew in the Senate wanted but Democrats who control the House rejected.

The deal doesn’t go nearly as far as senators wanted, but it goes far enough to win their support for a robust capital-construction budget – one that includes $1.1 billion in bonds.

That’s several hundred million dollars less than the previous bond proposals on the table but much more than had been contemplated by the Senate as the debt issue turned into an impasse. Senators threatened to withhold most bonds without a debt deal.

The so-called “roadkill caucus” – centrist Democrats in the state Legislature frustrated with the dominant liberal factions of their party – will have to find a new name.

The roadkillers didn’t so much get thrown under the bus in 2011 as drive it.

Case in point: the budget deal unveiled Tuesday – the first in a long while to justifiably claim the bipartisan label.

Pay cuts for teachers, administrators and most other school employees are part of the moves state lawmakers are making today to balance the next budget.

Salaries for teachers would be trimmed 1.9 percent and for administrative staff by 3 percent under the budget proposal expected to clear the Legislature on this final day of special session.

And those wage cuts may be permanent as lawmakers are not promising to put the money back in anytime soon.

Cliff Mass can be as quirky and blustery as those late fall frontal systems and winter snow squalls whose arrival onshore the University of Washington atmospheric scientist is so adept at charting and predicting.

Mass has long been an essential prelude to weekends when this hiker doesn't go to Mass. It's often important to head out knowing the likelihood that a gorgeous Saturday sunset atop a high ridge in the Cascades will yield to a cold, soggy, socked-in Sunday morning.

After years of wrangling over where to build a branch university campus in Snohomish County, the Legislature has taken a first step toward creating one in Everett, with the help of Washington State University.

The decision marks the end of a proposal to have the University of Washington build an $800 million science and technology branch campus in Snohomish County. And it kick-starts a program to help Snohomish County residents — especially Boeing machinists — go to school to become engineers.

Two members of Western Washington University's varsity eight, No. 5 seat Siri Carlson and coxswain Samantha Oberholzer, have been named to the 2011 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association/NCAA Division II Pocock All-America women's rowing team.

Carlson and Oberholzer have played major roles in Western being ranked No. 1 nationally all year long and in position to win a seventh straight national title this weekend at Gold River, Calif. It is the fourth trip to nationals for Oberholzer and the third for Carlson.

Pay for teachers would be cut 1.9 percent and for school administrative staff by 3 percent over the next two years under a budget agreement released by lawmakers on Tuesday.

The pay cuts, worth $179 million, are part of more than $4 billion in cuts lawmakers are proposing as a way to close a roughly $5 billion budget shortfall.

The size of pay reductions for educators was a key area of disagreement during budget negotiations over the past several months.

The state Redistricting Commission will hold a public forum in Bellingham Thursday, May 26, to gather public input on the effort to redraw legislative and congressional districts this year.

Using 2010 Census data, the commission will redraw the districts, accommodating a new one for a 10th representative in Congress.

The forum will be at Western Washington University starting at 6 p.m. in the Academic West Building, room 204. It'll begin with an open house where people can see maps and talk with map specialists. At 6:30 p.m., a presentation providing an overview of restricting will begin, and the commission shortly after will begin taking public comment.

Western Washington University scored a record 181 points in winning its third consecutive GNAC All-Sports title, according to final official figures released by the conference office Monday, May 23.

Points are awarded (on a two-point increment) based on the final finishes in each of the conference's 16 sports - football, volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's indoor track & field, men's and women's outdoor track & field, men's and women's golf, baseball and softball.

The Vikings, who have won seven all-sports titles in the 10-year history of the conference, broke their own record of 167 points they registered in winning the 2009-10 title.